April 29, 2008

.. why anyone would pay more or less the same price for a low quality download as for a CD. Well, now that iTunes has become the #1 U.S. music retailer I have to admit the answer must be that buyers put a higher value on convenience than sound. Well alright, HDtracks offers three higher-resolution download alternatives: "CD quality" UNcompressed AIFF and lossless FLAC files or 320kbps MP3s. All three are DRM free. Oh, and when you buy a complete album you also get the cover art and liner notes as a PDF. Complete albums go for $11.98, individual tracks, $1.49.

True, iTunes isn't in any immediate danger of losing market share–HDtracks is just starting up–so you're not going to find Radiohead, R.E.M., or the Rolling Stones' music there just yet. HDtracks' selection is quirkier, less mainstream, with folk, gospel, blues, jazz, Latin, pop, R&B, rock, classical and soundtracks from a wide spectrum of independent labels. HDtracks is adding new labels all the time.

HDtracks was started by David and Norman Chesky, who will continue to run their audiophile record label, Chesky Records. HDtracks will in the coming months begin to offer ultra high resolution 96-khz/24-bit files, which will sound even better, much better than CD quality downloads, for a limited number of titles.

April 28, 2008

Breaking: RIAA is suing Project Playlist for copyright violations. ilike.com could be next?

Reuter Story –

Nine major record labels filed suit against an online music provider on Monday, accusing Project Playlist Inc of a "massive infringement" of their copyrights to the songs of artists such as U2 and Gwen Stefani.

Project Playlist (http://www.projectplaylist.com) enables its users to easily find, play and share music with others for free, according to the suit filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.

The website compiles a vast index of songs on the Internet and users can "quickly and easily search the index for recordings by their favorite artists. At the click of a mouse, Project Playlist instantly streams a digital performance of the selected recording to the user, who can listen to it on his or her computer or mobile device," the lawsuit said.

"Project Playlist also has begun optimizing its site for use on iPhones and iPods," the record companies said in the suit.

The Beverly Hills, California-based company, an affiliate of KR Capital Partners LLC, also allows its users to embed their personalized playlists on social network sites such as MySpace, Facebook and Blogger, the lawsuit said. The record companies said projectplaylist.com gets more than 600,000 daily users, nearly 9.5 million average page views per day.

"In short (Project Playlist's) entire business amounts to nothing more than a massive infringement" of the record companies' copyrights, the record companies said.

They are seeking to enjoin Project Playlist from continuing to offer its customers free music and are also seeking unspecified damages

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